High-end home sales in Charlotte on hold - Charlotte Business Journal:

http://www.provopride.com/story/2006/12/17/175528/63
million mansion in Myers With its marble floors andwine cellar, the 5,700-square-fooy spec home on Queena Road West was builf long before the financial crisis reshapede Charlotte’s economic landscape. It might get two showings a but so far no offers close to theasking price. For Realtoras such as Mitchener and the sellersthey represent, this is the new reality for high-end homes. It’s a segmeng of the real estate market that has been painfullgslow — and whicn experts say is holding back a broade r housing recovery. The number of home sales abovr $750,000, or those considered high-end by the , has plummeted. And for multimillion-dollarf homes, things are even slower.
“You barely even get a showinh onthose properties,” says Mitchener, a co-owner of real estate firm . Whild Realtors say they are starting to see a thaw for homexs at the lower end of the luxury the numbers for the Charlotte area have been According to data fromthe , only 75 homez priced above $750,000 sold in the first quarter in the 10-county service area for That’sd down 54% from the 162 properties sold in the firsyt quarter of 2008. And it’s down 69% from the 245 sold in the first quarterof 2007.
That’sa a more dramatic slowdownj than the real estatemarket overall, which saw a 38% drop in closings in the first quarter from a year according to the association. And the highee the price, the worse it gets. Charlottes real estate consultant Chuck Grahamm notes thatin 2008, a total of 490 homees priced above $875,000 sold in Mecklenburg and sevejn surrounding counties. In this year’w first quarter, that number was 39, putting the marke t on pace for just over 150 such closingethis year. That’s a 70% plunge. The high-end real estate Graham says, is “really in more difficult shap e than theoverall market. And the higher you go up in the more distressedthe market.
” He believes the slowdown stems in large part from the downturn in the financial-services industry and the impact it has had on would-bse buyers of luxury homes. “Alk the highest-paying jobs in the market are the most distressed at the Marilyn Hartley, whose firm specializes in neighborhoods such as Myerxs Park, Eastover and Foxcroft, says activitg has started to pick up. Still, the near collaps and sale of Wachovia Corp. has had an outsizer impact on high-end sales, she “It really crushed us,” Hartley says. “Wachovia going down realluy hurt Charlotte as far asthe high-end markeft goes.
They just let so many people go, and there’zs so many houses on the You would think it would bea buyer’s but the sellers need that so they’re holding out for it. It’ws tough.” Hartley says deals have closed recently on some homes inthe $1.4 million to $1.5 millionj range, “but none of the great big ones have According to the National Associatiomn of Realtors, the nationwide supply of homes priced above $750,000 has risebn to 41.1 months from 18.7 months in and sales are only half of what they were.
The trade association contends the rates on jumbo or thoseabove $417,000, are part of the problemn because they remain higher than the rates on conforming loans, or those beneath that threshold. “Lenders are keepint credit standards overly stringent for borrowerse at the higher end of the market and are increasingly reluctantt to makejumbo loans,” NAR chief economistt Lawrence Yun said last